The South Sound Squash Club recently hosted the annual Junior Caribbean Area Squash Association Championships and saw two Cayman players secure second-place finishes in their division.
The highly anticipated, premier Caribbean junior squash event had roughly 150 players from eight participating countries compete from 29 June to 5 July in best-of-five games with points to 11.
The Cayman contingent delivered a strong performance in the individuals and doubles division, with two finalists and multiple quarter finalists and top-eight finishes.
As for the teams division, Julian Jervis, a Cayman national player and coach, told the Compass, “We didn’t do as strongly as you would expect, given our individual results, but that’s part and parcel of the team event. Usually the team event is for the team that has the most players and the strongest depth, whereas I feel like we have quality, but not as much quantity as yet, because we’re still a programme in the rebuilding phase, but nonetheless, I think we did really well.”
Standout squash performances
Among the standout performances was that of Kaylee Pierre, last year’s under-13 champion, who returned to the competition this year in the tougher under-15 age category.
Despite the challenge, Pierre rose to the occasion, making it to the final and securing an impressive second place against Guyana’s Kaylee Lowe.
Jervis lauded Pierre’s achievement, especially given that she was one of the youngest in her new age group.
Charlie Makin entered the boy’s under-17 individuals division unseeded and as one of the underdogs, but quickly made his mark, dominating his first match against Bermuda’s No. 2 seed on day one.
Makin continued his remarkable run, pulling off a significant upset over Barbados’ number two seed, Daniel Sealy, in the quarter-finals, coming back from two games down to win 3-2.
He followed this with a strong 3-0 semi-final win before ultimately placing second overall to Jayden George of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Adriano Vera, despite being unseeded, also delivered a great performance in the boy’s under-15 individuals division, knocking out the No. 2 seed in the first round and making it all the way to the semi-finals, ultimately placing fourth overall.
Maximilian Wolf, also unseeded in the boy’s under-15 individuals division, finished sixth and made it into the top eight.
Beryl Arch competed in the girl’s under-11 individuals division and also finished in sixth place.
In the girl’s under-19 individuals division, Milanna Lamontagne narrowly lost 11-9 in the fifth game of her quarter-final match against the No. 3 seed. She only lost matches to the top three seeds of her age group and ended up placing fifth overall in her category.
Jervis expressed high hopes for Lamontagne, anticipating her return next year as the number two seed in the under-19 age group, putting her in contention for the final.
Lamontagne also saw success with her mixed-doubles partner Brodey McComb where they battled through tough matches to reach the semi-finals, ultimately sharing a third-place finish with Ethan Miller and Elle Wilson of Jamaica.
McComb also showed his grit in the second round of the boys under-19 individuals division, coming back from two games down to force a fifth game against the number three seed of his age group, who eventually won the tournament. While McComb ultimately lost, he thoroughly exhausted his opponent, a testament to his strong play.
Jervis said he looks forward to Cayman continuing to increase its team finishes as the programme grows, noting that while Guyana won the team event followed by Barbados, Cayman was happy with the individual player quality demonstrated.
He remains confident that in the coming years, Cayman will climb the team ranks, closing the gap with other regional squash powerhouses.
